Americans possibly buying Bitcoins with their stimulus checks

Americans are possibly using their US$1,200 [AU$1,899] stimulus checks to get Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, according to some members of the crypto community.

In a report made by Forbes, a large number of people buying BTC and other cryptocurrencies with their stimulus checks could possibly be the cause of increased trading activity among crypto exchanges.

This happened despite the price drop of BTC to $3,500 to $3,800 levels last March.

BTC purchases amounting to more or less $1,200

Brian Armstrong, chief executive officer of Coinbase, posted a chart that displayed the percentage of buys that are “exactly the same size as the $1,200 stimulus check” from the U.S. government.

Looking at the graph, most of the BTC purchases amounting to more or less $1,200 were made in the middle of April. That is also exactly the time when eligible American taxpayers received their stimulus checks.

Additionally, it is worth noting that the graph for the buys and deposits posted from Coinbase does not reflect where the activity really came from. It is unclear if these deposits are from Americans.

According to a spokesperson from Binance U.S., they also witnessed increased $1,200 deposits this month.

“People do seem to have deposited exactly $1,200 into Binance U.S. in the past couple of days,” Binance adds.

There is also a considerable number of people who also posted on Reddit about their decision to buy BTC from the stimulus checks they received. There are some who suggested that others get their stimulus money through Cash App instead because it allows them to buy BTC directly as well.

Is there a growing interest in BTC?

The halving event expected to happen a few weeks from now could also be one of the drivers of the public’s growing interest in BTC. Some BTC spectators believe that the upcoming halving will have a positive impact on the price of the coin.

Members of the crypto community, including BTC pioneer and ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees, showed this belief in BTC when they acquired Portis, an Israeli startup. Vorhees sought to bring BTC into the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem by integrating Portis into ShapeShift.

Medallion Fund’s possible entry into the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) BTC futures could also demonstrate “open interest” from institutional firms.

Americans could be spending their stimulus checks on ‘essentials’ too

However, not everyone agrees that the stimulus checks are used for purposes other than essentials.

According to California congressman Adam Schiff, 80 million Americans who received stimulus checks are “spending it on essentials—food, gas and rent.”

Although the recovery of BTC after a surprising drop it suffered from mid-March sparked renewed interest from the public, investors are still advised to make prudent decisions before they decide to buy cryptocurrencies.

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